Kansas City Legal Briefs: October 2, 2006

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Oct 2, 2006 by Charles Emerick

Judge Dean retires

Friday marked the end of more than 17 years on the bench for Judge K. Preston Dean, who officially retired.

Dean, who announced his retirement in early August, will still occasionally fill in on the criminal A docket through the end of the year.

Dean was appointed as Jackson County Circuit Court judge in 1989 by Gov. John Ashcroft. Before his appointment, Dean served as counsel for the Missouri Public Service Co., worked in a private practice and was an assistant U.S. attorney.

He received his juris doctorate from the University of Missouri- Columbia in 1971.

Gov. Matt Blunt on Sept. 13 received three nominations to fill Dean's position in Division 15. The 16th Circuit Judicial Commission submitted Robert Scheiber, James Tobin and Brian Wimes. Blunt has until Nov. 11 to make his selection.

Judge John Torrence has been assigned to the criminal A docket for 2007.

Couple loses lawsuit against Ohio company

A Kansas City couple was defeated twice last week in the Jackson County Circuit Court.

A jury ruled in an 11-1 verdict against John and Carol Wagner

in their breach of fiduciary duty claim. And the defendant, Warrensville Heights, Ohio-based Mortgage Information Services, was awarded $10,000 in its counterclaim against the couple.

The Wagners claimed Mortgage Information Services failed to perform its contractual obligations in a loan transaction, which subjected the couple to debt obligations ofmultiple secured creditors and forced them to institute collateral litigation against other companies.

Mortgage Information Services counterclaimed that the Wagners were fraudulent in their initial claims. It said they intentionally misrepresented payoff amounts owed by the Wagners.